Universal Shifts ‘M3GAN’ Up To First Week In 2023

Universal just announced that M3gan, whose first teaser trailer has notched 150 million views globally thus far, is moving its theatrical release date up by exactly one week. The horror flick, about a life-like doll that becomes sentient and starts killing people, will now open on January 6, 2023, instead of January 13 of next year.

This is likely due to ParamountPARA
shifting the wide release of Damien Chazelle’s Babylon from January 6 (following a Christmas weekend platform launch) to a wide release over the holiday season. That reportedly three-hour, R-rated early-days-of-Hollywood drama features Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt and is seen as the Viacom-owned studio’s most likely Oscar season contender (give or take Top Gun: Maverick).

With both The Super Mario Bros. Movie (with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish taking its place) and Shazam: Fury of the Gods moving from December of this year to the Spring of 2023, the potentially lucrative holiday season was open for a big movie that isn’t a Walt DisneyDIS
tentpole. But that’s Babylon. M3Gan presumably won’t compete at the 2024 Academy Awards, but it is positioning itself as next year’s first big-deal theatrical release.

I will admit surprise at the move since the Martin Luther King Day weekend has proven to be a firm launching pad for previous horror titles like Mama ($33 million in 2013) and Glass ($41 million in 2019). Conversely, Universal launched Split (like Glass, also an M. Night Shyamalan flick) to a whopping $40 million in the weekend prior to the MLK holiday frame in 2017 and then benefited from strong buzzy and a holiday bump over weekend two.

I’m guessing Universal wouldn’t be doing this if they didn’t think the Gerard Johnstone-directed and Akela Cooper-penned thriller wouldn’t please the crowds. Jason Blum and James Wan produce the original chiller. Having Mr. Blumhouse and Mr. Conjuring together again will be a vital part of the marketing campaign.

This is bad news for Sony’s untitled horror film (”Untitled True Haunting”), currently slated for January 6, but I’m guessing Sony will react accordingly soon enough. It leaves Warner Bros. Discovery’s House Party and Columbia’s Tom Hanks-led dramedy A Man Called Otto (platforming for a week for awards consideration on Christmas weekend) remaining on the first holiday weekend of 2023.